Sunday 3rd June ~ Fairburn (Away) ~ YACA Cup

Huddy On Form

It almost felt like summer as the Tongites band descended upon Fairburn 'en mass'. It wasn't so much the sunny weather, or the picturesque Fairburn ground that had brought them out in numbers, more it were the reports that the local pub sold beer at £1.16 a pint and lager at £1.45! There were perhaps a large number of the crowd and the team hoping for an early finish - thankfully it wasn't to be so, and 6.30 pm was certainly early enough for most of the assembled bodies.

Anyway to the game.

The YACA KO Cup is made up of the first teams from all of the Yorkshire Amateur Cricket Alliance leagues and so although we had drawn Fairburn in this preliminary round we could well have been travelling to south Sheffield. Fairburn won the toss and elected to bat on what looked a superb strip and outfield. As it turned out, both were the case and the ball was oft seen speeding to distant boundaries. Unfortunately for Steve Taylor having elected to bowl from the A1 end of the ground he was soon to find that the wind had changed direction and was coming straight into his face. Infact for some 34 overs no wicket was taken from this end until Huddy came on to mop up the tail.

At 124 for 1 with still 15 overs left, it looked like we'd (yes, I'd been dragged out of retirement) be chasing a mammoth total. The Fairburn skipper 'Taff' Jones and club stalwart Peter Clark doing all of the damage. Thankfully with the fall of these two the scoring began to slow down and the wickets began a regular flow. After some early stick Huddy found his length(!) and completed his eight overs with 4 for 40 leaving the Fairburn total on 195 for 9 at the end of their allotted forty overs.

One thing about this years fixtures have been the excellent teas provided and today was no exception, as we all had a picnic on the grass.

The Tong batting turned out to be a masterclass from the inform Huddy and Darren Holmes. After the early demise of Neil Dickinson, holing out again at deep mid-wicket, the two H's commenced their steady march towards the Fairburn total with the ball flaying across the close cut outfield. Eventually Daz was bowled for 77 with the score on 174 for 'Neil' and skipper Reg went out to see his vice-captain through to his deserved century - well that's what we thought.

As it turned out Reg proceeded to blast the ball to various boundaries and leave Huddy stranded on 93 not out. This meant that Huddy had scored 174 runs over the weekend without being out, and sending him leaping to the top of the club averages.

The game being done, all removed to the Waggon and Horses for a session of Sam Smith's and some excellent sarnies. Thanks to all at Fairburn for an excellent day out.